Injection container storage box device and injection container picking system including the device

ABSTRACT

An injection container storage box device that stores a plurality of cylindrical injection containers randomly loaded includes: a housing of which the upper and lower ends are open; and an opening/closing plate disposed in a lower end portion of the housing so as to freely slide to open and close a lower end opening, on which the injection containers are placed, wherein the opening/closing plate includes a corrugated surface in which a plurality of convex portions and a plurality of concave portions alternate continuously in a predetermined direction and the injection containers are put into a toppled state using the corrugated surface.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a divisional application of Ser. No. 14/140,001, filed Dec. 24,2013 which is currently allowed. The subject matter of theaforementioned prior application is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a storage box device used for storinginjection containers delivered from a dispensary or the like of ahospital, for example, to a medical field. In particular, the presentinvention relates to an injection container storage box device ideal forpicking these injection containers one by one based on image dataobtained from the stored injection containers and to an injectioncontainer picking system including the injection container storage boxdevice.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Conventionally, in a medical field such as a hospital, used-up emptyinjection containers such as injectors, ampuls, or vials are disposedafter being subjected to treatments for example necessary for ensuringsafety. Reading the drug cost scores of these disposed injectioncontainers is important from the perspectives of managing the medicalcosts in a hospital and charging patients for drug costs.

Due to this, in a medical field, an operation of aggregating the drugcost scores of these injection containers is performed. This aggregationoperation involves complex and difficult manual operations in which aperson picks up injection containers of various shapes from a storagebox storing the injection containers, reads information such as labelsattached to the outer circumferential surface thereof, and aggregatesthe information. Thus, reading errors or the like may result inaggregation errors.

In order to solve such a problem, techniques for automating a series ofoperations of picking up injection containers from a storage box or thelike and reading information attached thereto have been developed. Forexample, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2008-62376 proposes a picking system for picking up randomly positionedobjects and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2010-115339 proposes an information reading device for readinginformation on empty injection containers. Further, a reading device forsetting an injection container picked up by the picking system ofJapanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-62376 on theinformation reading device of Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2010-115339 and reading information such as labels onthe outer circumferential surface of an injection container may be takeninto consideration, for example.

Meanwhile, a medical waste box of Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 10-328253 or a container of Japanese Unexamined PatentApplication Publication No. 2007-182240 has been proposed as an exampleof a storage box that stores the injection containers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As illustrated in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.10-328253 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2007-182240, these medical waste box and container are formed such thatthe bottom thereof is horizontal and flat. Thus, when injectioncontainers are loaded randomly in a medical waste box or the like, aninjection container may sometimes be self-supported on the bottom. Inparticular, vials and ampuls are likely to be self-supported because thecenter of gravity is lowered when an injection remains therein (See FIG.10).

An identification device that identifies objects in the above-describedpicking system as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2008-62376 is mainly configured such that the interiorof a medical waste box is imaged from an upper side using a camera toobtain image data and the image data is processed to identify objects.

Moreover, injection containers such as a syringe of an injector, anampul, or a vial are generally formed in a cylindrical shape such as,for example, a circular cylindrical shape, and are characterized intheir side geometry rather than their planar shape.

Further, the injection containers generally have a larger length in thelongitudinal direction of the cylinder than a cylinder diameter. When aninjection container in the self-supported state and an injectioncontainer in the toppled state are imaged from the same upper position,the area (that is, the number of pixels) of the image of the injectioncontainer in the self-supported state is smaller than the area of theimage of the injection container in the toppled state. Hence, it is moredifficult to process the image of the injection container in theself-supported state than the image of the injection container in thetoppled state.

Thus, for example, in the above-described identifying device, it iseasier to identify the injection container in the toppled state thanidentifying the injection container in the self-supported state.

That is, since an injection container collected in the medical waste boxof Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-328253 orthe container of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.2007-182240 may be in the self-supported state, there is a problem inthat the above-described identifying device cannot easily identify theinjection container in the self-supported state and it is difficult topick up the injection container.

In a medical field, in many cases, waste materials such as a removedampul head or a vial cap separated from a vial as well as injectioncontainers are disposed into a medical waste box (see FIGS. 2A to 2C).Due to this, after the injection containers only are picked up, thesewaste materials remain in the medical waste box. However, according tothe medical waste box of Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 10-328253 or the like, a person needs to perform acomplex waste material discharging operation, for example, by removingthe medical waste box from the identifying device and turning themedical waste box upside down when discharge the waste materials.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of theabove-described conventional techniques, and an object of the presentinvention is to provide an injection container storage box device whichis ideal for acquiring image data of injection containers storedrandomly from an upper side and picking up the injection containers oneby one based on the image data and which can easily discharge a wastematerial such as an ampul head from the injection container storage boxdevice and to provide an injection container picking system includingthe injection container storage box device.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided aninjection container storage box device that stores a plurality ofcylindrical injection containers randomly loaded, including: a housingof which the upper and lower ends are open; and an opening/closing platedisposed in a lower end portion of the housing so as to freely slide toopen and close a lower end opening, on which the injection containersare placed, wherein the opening/closing plate includes a corrugatedsurface in which a plurality of convex portions and a plurality ofconcave portions alternate continuously in a predetermined direction andthe injection containers are put into a toppled state using thecorrugated surface.

In the injection container storage box device having the above-mentionedconstitution, the housing includes a corrugated lower end portion thatcan engage with the corrugated surface, the opening/closing plate slidesin a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction, and thecorrugated surface slides while approximately engaging with thecorrugated lower end portion.

In the injection container storage box device having the above-mentionedconstitution, the distance between the adjacent convex portions islarger than a barrel diameter of the injection container.

In the injection container storage box device having the above-mentionedconstitution, an upper end portion of the convex portion and a lower endportion of the concave portion are formed in a circular arc shape.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is providedan injection container picking system including: the injection containerstorage box device having the above-mentioned constitution; an imagingunit that images the injection containers from an upper side of theinjection container storage box device; an image processing unit thatprocesses the image data acquired by the imaging unit; a robot hand thatpicks up the injection containers one by one; a control unit thatcontrols an operation of the robot hand; and a slide unit that allowsthe opening/closing plate to slide.

According to the present invention, the injection container storage boxdevice that stores a plurality of cylindrical injection containersrandomly loaded includes: a housing of which the upper and lower endsare open; and an opening/closing plate disposed in a lower end portionof the housing so as to freely slide to open and close a lower endopening, on which the injection containers are placed, wherein theopening/closing plate includes a corrugated surface in which a pluralityof convex portions and a plurality of concave portions alternatecontinuously in a predetermined direction and the injection containersare put into a toppled state using the corrugated surface.

Due to such a constitution, even when a cylindrical injection containerhaving a flat lower end portion is loaded in a state where the lower endportion is placed on the opening/closing plate of the injectioncontainer storage box device, the injection container is put into anunstable state due to the corrugated surface and is toppled. Thus, it ispossible to provide an injection container storage box device ideal foracquiring the image of the stored injection containers from an upperside and picking the injection containers one by one based on the image.Moreover, when the opening/closing plate is slid so that the lower endopening is open, since waste materials such as an ampul cap fall, it ispossible to provide an injection container storage box device that caneasily discharge the waste materials.

Further, according to the present invention, the housing includes acorrugated lower end portion that can engage with the corrugatedsurface, the opening/closing plate slides in a direction orthogonal tothe predetermined direction, and the corrugated surface slides whileapproximately engaging with the corrugated lower end portion.

Due to such a constitution, even when the waste materials such as anampul cap remaining on the opening/closing plate, for example, movetogether with the opening/closing plate during the sliding of theopening/closing plate, the movement of these waste materials isrestricted by the corrugated lower end portion and the waste materialsare reliably discharged by falling through the opening opened with thesliding of the opening/closing plate.

Further, according to the present invention, the distance between theadjacent convex portions is larger than a barrel diameter of theinjection container.

Due to such a constitution, even when the injection containers areloaded in a state where the lower end portion is placed on theopening/closing plate of the injection container storage box device, thelower end portion is not supported by the adjacent convex portions.Accordingly, the injection container is put into a more unstable stateand reliably topples. As a result, it is possible to provide aninjection container storage box device more ideal for acquiring theimage of the stored injection containers from an upper side and pickingthe injection containers one by one based on the image.

Further, according to the present invention, the upper end portion ofthe convex portion and the lower end portion of the concave portion areformed in a circular arc shape.

Due to such a constitution, when the image of the stored injectioncontainers is acquired from the upper side, it is possible to betterprevent the upper end portion of the convex portion and the lower endportion of the concave portion from appearing in the image as a strippattern than when the convex portion and the concave portion are formedin a triangular cross-sectional shape. As a result, it is possible toprovide an injection container storage box device capable of acquiringan image more ideal for picking up the injection containers one by onebased on the image.

Further, according to the present invention, the injection containerpicking system includes: the injection container storage box devicehaving the above-mentioned constitution; an imaging unit that images theinjection containers from an upper side of the injection containerstorage box device; an image processing unit that processes the imagedata acquired by the imaging unit; a robot hand that picks up theinjection containers one by one; a control unit that controls anoperation of the robot hand; and a slide unit that allows theopening/closing plate to slide.

Due to such a constitution, it is possible to provide an injectioncontainer picking system that can easily identify the injectioncontainers stored in the injection container storage box device, pick upthe injection containers with high accuracy, and discharge wastematerials from the injection container storage box device easily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 1C are diagrams for describing examples of an injectioncontainer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A to 2C are diagrams for describing examples of a waste materialaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are perspective views of an injection container storagebox device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are plan views of the injection container storage boxdevice according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the injection container storage box deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an end view along line A-A of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view for describing an opening/closing plate ofthe injection container storage box device according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams for describing a corrugated surface of theopening/closing plate according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 9A to 9C are diagrams for describing the function of the injectioncontainer storage box device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are diagrams for describing examples of a conventionalinjection container storage box.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for describing an injection container pickingsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be describedwith reference to the drawings.

The present invention relates to a storage box device in which aplurality of cylindrical empty injection containers or the like such asused-up ampuls used in a medical field such as an operating room, forexample, is loaded randomly. An injection container storage box deviceof the present embodiment includes a housing of which the upper andlower ends are open; and an opening/closing plate disposed in a lowerend portion of the housing so as to freely slide to open and close alower end opening, on which the injection containers are placed, whereinthe opening/closing plate includes a corrugated surface in which aplurality of convex portions and a plurality of concave portionsalternate continuously and the injection containers are put into atoppled state using the corrugated surface. The injection containerstorage box device of the present embodiment is provided in an injectioncontainer picking system described later and is ideal for picking upinjection containers one by one and discharging waste materials such asan ampul cap easily.

Prior to description of an injection container storage box device 10according to the present embodiment, an object stored in the injectioncontainer storage box device 10 will be described with reference toFIGS. 1 and 2.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C and FIGS. 2A to 2C, examples of theobject include a cylindrical injection container 1 and a waste materialsuch as a removed ampul head 2 a or a vial cap 2 b removed from the headof a vial.

The cylindrical injection container 1 means an injection container suchas a vial 1 a illustrated in FIG. 1A, an ampul 1 b illustrated in FIG.1B, or a syringe 1 c of an injector illustrated in FIG. 1C. The shape ofthese empty injection containers is not limited to a circularcylindrical shape, and for example, the empty injection container may beformed in various cylindrical shapes such as a hexagonal cylindricalshape having an approximately hexagonal cross-sectional shape or acylindrical shape having a rectangular cross-sectional shape that isclose to an approximately elliptical shape. The injection container 1may be an empty injection container with no injection in the container,an injection container with a small amount of injection remainingtherein, or a sealed injection container like an unused injectioncontainer.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C, these injection containers 1 haveinformation such as a barcode 5 attached on their side surface. Thisbarcode 5 includes identification information corresponding to theinjection container, such as the name of an injection or a cost price,for example.

These injection containers 1 are stored in the injection containerstorage box device 10, are picked up one by one by an injectioncontainer picking system 40 described later, for example, and are set onan information reading device (for example, see Japanese UnexaminedPatent Application Publication No. 2010-115339) having a barcode readingfunction to read various items of information such as barcodes. Theseitems of information are used for charging drug costs, cost management,or drug management.

FIGS. 2A to 2C illustrate examples of waste materials such as an ampulhead 2 a, a vial cap 2 b, or a glass piece 2 c.

Hereinafter, an example of the injection container storage box deviceaccording to the present embodiment will be described with reference toFIGS. 3A and 3B to FIGS. 8A and 8B.

As illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, an injection container storage boxdevice 10 of the present embodiment includes a housing 12 and anopening/closing plate 14 on which the injection containers 1 are placed.FIG. 3A illustrates a state where the opening/closing plate 14 isreceived and a lower end opening 13 b of the housing 12 is closed, andFIG. 3B illustrates a state where approximately half of theopening/closing plate 14 is drawn out. FIG. 4A illustrates a plan viewcorresponding to FIG. 3A, and FIG. 4B illustrates a plan viewcorresponding to FIG. 3B.

First, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIGS. 4A and 4B, thehousing 12 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped hollow containerform that has an upper end opening 13 a and a lower end opening 13 b.More specifically, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIG. 5, thehousing 12 includes a front vertical plate member 20 a, a rear verticalplate member 20 b, a left vertical plate member 20 c, and a rightvertical plate member 20 d. As illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the housing12 includes small projecting plates 22 c and 22 d that protrude in anapproximately horizontal direction toward the inner side of the housing12 from respective lower end portions 29 c and 29 d of the left andright vertical plate members 20 c and 20 d. The projecting plates 22 cand 22 d will be described later.

As illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, FIGS. 4A and 4B, and FIG. 5, thehousing 12 includes small latching plates 24 c and 24 d that protrude inan approximately horizontal direction toward the outer side of thehousing 12 from respective upper ends of the left and right verticalplate members 20 c and 20 d. The latching plates 24 c and 24 d arelatched to a frame 43 described later, whereby the housing 12 can besupported by the frame 43.

As illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIG. 5, the lower end portion ofthe front vertical plate member 20 a of the housing 12 is formed of acorrugated lower end portion 21. Specifically, as illustrated in FIGS. 5and 7, the corrugated lower end portion 21 is formed in approximatelythe same wavy form as a corrugated surface 17 when seen from a directionorthogonal to a wave propagation direction F described later.

Injection containers 1 a, 1 b, and 1 c are randomly loaded into thehousing 12 from the upper end opening 13 a of the housing 12 formed inthis manner. In this case, waste materials such as an ampul head 2 a, avial cap 2 b, and a glass piece 2 c are also loaded.

The shape of the housing is not limited to the rectangularparallelepiped shape of the present embodiment, and the housing may beformed in a circular cylindrical shape or an elliptical cylindricalshape of which the upper end is open, for example.

The opening/closing plate 14 which is a main part of the presentembodiment includes a main body 18 including the corrugated surface 17and a grip 26 as illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B and FIG. 7.

As illustrated in FIG. 4A, the main body 18 of the present embodiment isformed of a plate member having a rectangular shape in a plan view ofapproximately the same size as the bottom portion of the housing 12. Asillustrated in FIG. 7, the upper surface of the main body 18 is formedas the corrugated surface 17 in which a plurality of convex portions Aand a plurality of concave portions B alternate continuously in the wavepropagation direction F which is the predetermined direction.

More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIGS. 8A and8B, the corrugated surface 17 is formed such that the upper ends of theplurality of convex portions A are at the same height. In this case, asillustrated in FIG. 8A, the distance P between the adjacent convexportions is preferably larger than a cylinder diameter T of theinjection container 1. This is because, if the distance P is smallerthan the cylinder diameter T as illustrated in FIG. 8B, even when theinjection container 1 is loaded in a state where the lower end portionthereof is placed on the corrugated surface 17, for example, the lowerend portion can be supported by the adjacent convex portions. As aresult, the injection container 1 can be self-supported.

As illustrated in FIGS. 5 to 7 and FIGS. 8A and 8B, although the upperend portion of the convex portion A and the lower end portion of theconcave portion B of the present embodiment have a circular arc shape ina cross-sectional view, the cross-sectional shape of the convex portionand the concave portion is not limited to the circular arc shape but maybe a triangular shape. When the convex portion and the concave portionhave a triangular cross-sectional shape, due to a difference in lightreflection patterns on the apex of a triangle and a slope surface of thetriangle, a linear image extending along the apexes may appear in animage obtained by an imaging unit of a picking device described later.Since such a linear image is a noise image that is not related to theimage of the injection container 1, a noise removal process may beexecuted during the image processing as necessary.

When the convex portion and the concave portion have a circular arcshape in a cross-sectional view, the peaks of the convex portions andthe troughs of the concave portions are imaged more smoothly than thesame is formed in a triangular shape. Thus, the difference in lightreflection patterns on the apex of the convex portion (or the concaveportion) and the slope surface of the convex portion (or the concaveportion) decreases. As a result, it is possible to prevent a linearimage extending along the apexes (or the troughs) from appearing in theabove-described image.

The length of the slope surface of a wave (more specifically, thevertical length L of the slope surface of the wave as illustrated inFIG. 8A) is preferably smaller than half of the height of the injectioncontainer 1. This is because, if the length L is larger than half of theheight of the injection container 1, the injection container 1 may leanon the slope surface of the wave.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B and FIG. 7, the grip 26 includes aplate 26 a having a through-hole 27. As illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4Band FIG. 7, the grip 26 protrudes from one end of the main body 18parallel to the wave propagation direction F in a state where thesurface of the plate is approximately horizontal.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B and FIGS. 5 and 7, the main body 18includes grooves 28 that are formed on both side ends orthogonal to thewave propagation direction F so as to extend in a direction orthogonalto the wave propagation direction F. The grooves 28 are formed asgrooves having a width slightly larger than the thickness of theprojecting plates 22 c and 22 d.

As illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, FIGS. 4A and 4B, and FIGS. 5 and 6,the opening/closing plate 14 formed in this manner is attached to thelower end portions 29 c and 29 d of the housing 12 with the projectingplates 22 c and 22 d inserted in the grooves 28, respectively, in astate where the corrugated surface 17 faces the upper side. In thiscase, the corrugated lower end portion 21 is positioned slightly abovethe corrugated surface 17 in a front view as illustrated in FIG. 5 andis attached in such a way that it is approximately fitted to thecorrugated surface 17. Thus, as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIGS.4A and 4B, the opening/closing plate 14 of the present embodiment isattached to the lower end portion of the housing 12 so as to freelyslide in a direction orthogonal to the wave propagation direction F andis configured to open and close the lower end opening 13 b. Moreover, inthis case, the corrugated surface 17 is configured to slide while beingapproximately fitted to the corrugated lower end portion 21 asillustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B. Due to this, the waste materials such asthe ampul head 2 a remaining on the opening/closing plate 14 arereliably discharged downward from the lower end opening 13 b since themovement toward the corrugated lower end portion 21 is restricted evenwhen the opening/closing plate 14 is slid (see FIG. 11).

The function of the corrugated surface 17 of the present embodiment willbe described with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C and FIGS. 10A and 10B.

FIGS. 9A to 9C illustrate examples of the injection container storagebox device 10 according to the present embodiment, and FIGS. 10A and 10Billustrate examples of a conventional medical waste box for comparison.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 10A, in the case of the conventionalinjection container storage box, when the vial 1 a, for example, as theinjection container is loaded into the injection container storage boxin a state where the lower end portion faces downward, the vial 1 a issometimes self-supported on a flat bottom portion 3 of the injectioncontainer storage box as illustrated in FIG. 10B. In particular, when aninjection remains in the ampul 1 b or the vial 1 a, the ampul 1 b or thevial 1 a is likely to be self-supported because the center of gravity islowered.

In contrast, according to the injection container storage box device 10of the present embodiment, even when the vial 1 a is loaded into theinjection container storage box device 10 in a state where the lower endportion faces downward as illustrated in FIG. 9A, the lower end portionof the vial 1 a is caught on the corrugated surface 17 as illustrated inFIG. 9B, and the vial 1 a is likely to be put into an unstable state andis toppled. Thus, the vial 1 a is put into a toppled state asillustrated in FIG. 9C. Due to this, when the injection container 1 isimaged by an imaging unit of the injection container picking systemdescribed later, it is possible to obtain an image ideal for imageprocessing, which will be described later.

As described above, the injection container storage box device 10 of thepresent embodiment is configured to put the injection container 1 into atoppled state using the corrugated surface 17 when the injectioncontainer 1 loaded from the upper end opening of the housing 12 iscaught on the opening/closing plate 14.

Next, the injection container picking system 40 of another embodiment ofthe present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 11.

The injection container picking system 40 includes the above-describedinjection container storage box device 10, a frame 43 that supports theinjection container storage box device 10, an imaging unit 42, a robothand 44, an image processing unit 46, a slide unit 56, and a controlunit 48 that controls the operations of the robot hand 44, the slideunit 56, and the like.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the frame 43 is formed of a casing, forexample. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the injection container storage boxdevice 10 is fitted into the casing of the frame 43 and is supported bythe frame 43 in a state where the latching plates 24 c and 24 d areplaced on the upper end of the frame 43. In this manner, the injectioncontainer storage box device 10 is disposed at a predetermined position.

The imaging unit 42 is configured as an existing digital camera, forexample. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the imaging unit 42 is disposedabove the injection container storage box device 10 to image theinjection container 1 in the injection container storage box device 10from the upper side of the injection container storage box device 10 andtransmits the image data of the injection container 1 to the imageprocessing unit 46. The imaging unit may be configured to include aplurality of digital cameras, for example, and acquire 3-dimensionalimage data of the injection container 1.

The image processing unit 46 is configured to include an existing imageprocessing CPU, for example, process the image data from the imagingunit 42, and identify the injection container 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the robot hand 44 includes an existing multijoint robot arm 50, for example, and a holder 52 that holds theinjection container 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the holder 52 of the present embodiment isconfigured to pinch the side portion of the injection container 1 usingtwo claw members 54, for example, and is provided at a distal end of thearm 50. The holder is not limited to the configuration where it pinchesthe injection container 1 as in the present embodiment, but for example,the holder 52 may be configured to hold the injection container 1 usingvacuum adsorption, for example.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the slide unit 56 includes a withdrawal arm41 and a slide mechanism 47 that slides the withdrawal arm 41.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the withdrawal arm 41 includes a rod member41 a and a pin member 41 b, for example. The rod member 41 a of thepresent embodiment is formed of a cylindrical rod. As illustrated inFIG. 11, the rod member 41 a is disposed slightly below the grip 26 ofthe injection container storage box device 10 that is supported by theframe 43. More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 11, the rod member41 a is disposed so that the longitudinal direction is orthogonal to thefront vertical plate member 20 a.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the pin member 41 b is formed of a pin thatcan be inserted into a through-hole 27 of the grip 26. The pin member 41b is attached to the rod member 41 a in such a way that the pin member41 b protrudes in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal directionof the rod member 41 a from the distal end of the rod member 41 a asillustrated in FIG. 11.

The slide mechanism 47 may be an existing LM (Linear Motion) guidemechanism, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 11. For example, an LMblock 47 b may be attached onto an LM rail 47 a, and the LM block 47 bmay be slid along the LM rail 47 a.

The slide mechanism is not limited to the LM guide mechanism, but anoptional slide mechanism such as a rack-and-pinion mechanism may beused, for example.

The withdrawal arm 41 and the slide mechanism 47 formed in this mannerare linked by a rotation drive unit 45 as illustrated in FIG. 11.

The rotation drive unit 45 is formed of an existing motor. Asillustrated in FIG. 11, the rod member 41 a has a base end linked to therotation drive unit 45 and rotates about the central shaft of the rodmember 41 a according to the rotation drive unit 45. Moreover, therotation drive unit 45 is fixed to the LM block 47 b and is slidtogether with the LM block 47 b as illustrated in FIG. 11.

Thus, for example, the rotation drive unit 45 rotates the rod member 41a so that the pin member 41 b faces downward, and the slide mechanism 47moves the pin member 41 b so that the pin member 41 b is positionedbelow the through-hole 27. Subsequently, when the rotation drive unit 45rotates the rod member 41 a so that the pin member 41 b faces upward,the pin member 41 b is inserted into the through-hole 27 of the grip 26,and the grip 26 engages with the withdrawal arm 41. In this state, whenthe withdrawal arm 41 is slid by the slide mechanism 47, the wastematerials such as the ampul head 2 a in the injection container storagebox device 10 can be discharged by withdrawing the opening/closing plate14, as illustrated in FIG. 11.

The control unit 48 is configured as an existing computer, for example.The control unit 48 includes a guide means 48 a that guides the robothand 44 to the injection container 1 based on the data processed by theimage processing unit 46 and a picking means 48 b that corrects theattitude of the robot hand 44 and move the holder 52 so as to perform apicking operation. The control unit 48 controls the operation of therobot hand 44. The control unit 48 is connected to the slide unit 56 soas to control the operation of the slide unit.

As described above, according to the injection container picking system40 of the above-mentioned embodiment, the injection container 1 loadedinto the injection container storage box device 10 is put into a toppledstate. In general, when the injection container 1 is imaged from thesame distance, an image in a side view is larger than an image in a planview. That is, the amount of information of the image obtained byimaging the injection container 1 in the toppled state from the upperside is larger than the amount of information of the image obtained byimaging the injection container 1 in the self-supported state from theupper side. Thus, it is easy to extract the features from the imageobtained by imaging the injection container 1 in the toppled state fromthe upper side during the image processing of the injection containerpicking system 40. Thus, it is ideal because it is easy to identify theinjection container 1. According to the injection container pickingsystem 40 of the above-mentioned embodiment, it is possible to easilydischarge waste materials such as an ampul head in the injectioncontainer storage box device 10 by sliding the opening/closing plate 14without taking the injection container storage box device 10 out of theinjection container picking system 40, for example.

As described above, according to the injection container storage boxdevice 10 of the present embodiment, it is possible to provide aninjection container storage box device which is ideal for acquiringimage data of injection containers stored randomly from an upper sideand picking up the injection containers one by one based on the imagedata and to provide the injection container picking system 40 includingthe injection container storage box device. Moreover, according to theinjection container picking system 40 of another embodiment, it ispossible to easily discharge waste materials such as an ampul head fromthe injection container storage box device 10.

While several embodiments of the present invention have been describedin detail based on the drawings, these embodiments are examples only,and various modifications and improvements can be made to the presentinvention based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. An injection container picking system comprising:an injection container storage box device; an imaging unit that imagesinjection containers from an upper side of the injection containerstorage box device; an image processing unit that processes image dataacquired by the imaging unit; a robot hand that picks up the injectioncontainers one by one; a slide unit that allows an opening/closing plateto slide; and a control unit that controls an operation of the robothand and the slide unit, wherein the injection storage box devicecomprises a housing of which upper and lower ends each comprise arespective opening; and the opening/closing plate disposed in a lowerend portion of the housing so as to freely slide to open and close thelower end opening, the opening/closing plate in a closed statesupporting the injection containers in a randomly toppled state, whereinthe upper end opening of the housing is configured to accommodatepassage into the storage box device of the injection containers droppedfrom above into the storage box device, the injection containers beingof a predetermined diameter and having a flat external bottom surface;and the opening/closing plate includes a corrugated surface in which aplurality of convex portions and a plurality of concave portions, theconvex portions being of a same height, alternate continuously in apredetermined direction and spacing of apices of mutually adjacentconvex portions is greater than the diameter of the injection containerswhereby the corrugated surface does not support the injection containersin an upright orientation.
 2. The injection container picking systemaccording to claim 1, wherein on the corrugated surface of theopening/closing plate, an upper end portion of the convex portion andlower end portion of the concave portion are formed in a circular arcshape.